Stupid talking animal movies are among the worst films out there -- but this one is different

Receive the latest movies updates in your inbox

So come July 24, I'm just going to ignore that the people who wrote The Shaggy Dog and Bad Boys 2 (god love it) wrote this movie and just laugh at gerbil spies and singing mice with my fellow five year olds.

As a general rule, the only thing I hate more than romantic comedies is talking animal movies. I think I've made that clear. But for some reason there will always be one of the latter every couple of years that has me enthralled from the marketing get-go, which somehow convinces me to fork over my hard-earned cash and sit down in a family-filled theater to watch something really, really dumb.

Alvin and The Chipmunks was an example of this inexplicable phenomenon, and I fricking loved it. Loved it. And now it seems G-Force has filled my stupid talking animal movie excitement quota, because I really want to see it. Not that there aren't drawbacks: Penelope Cruz is involved and there's a fart joke in the trailer, but there actually seems to be a lot of good outweighing the bad in this movie.

Top Entertainment Photos

Zach Galifianakis is Not Animated
And neither is Will Arnett or Bill Nighy, who are also in it. Is there something depressing about those three making this movie, and David Cross making Alvin and the Chipmunks, in all likelihood just for the paycheck? Yes, but this is not a time for thinking! This is a time for G-Force! And Zach Galifianakis and Will Arnett are really funny in the trailer, and likely really funny in the movie, so we're already light years ahead of Racing Stripes here.

The Rest of the Cast is Awesome
While it's true that a lot of really famous people frequently do voice work because it's such easy money and studios like that they can still put their names on the poster even though they don't actually appear in the film (Angelina Jolie in Kung Fu Panda, anyone?), the voice work here isn't just famous people, it's awesome people, for the most part: Tracy Morgan, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi and Jon Favreau, all taking orders from their boss, Zach Galifianakis, who takes orders from his boss, Will Arnett. How can that not be at least slightly face-meltingly awesome?

It's Burn Notice, but with Gerbils, for Chrissakes
They are "an elite team of animal spies" who get too close to the truth and are shut down by the government. I'm sorry, that's hilarious.

Stupid Entertainment Can Be Cathartic
A few times a year, I like to take a break from hating everything that doesn't live up to a certain intangible standard and just enjoy something idiotic. And I think that's an important thing to do. You watch nothing but The Wire and Mad Men all the time and you'll go nuts. There's an art to light entertainment, and in small doses, it can be good for you.

So come July 24, I'm just going to ignore that the people who wrote The Shaggy Dog and Bad Boys 2 (god love it) wrote this movie and just laugh at gerbil spies and singing mice with my fellow five year olds and our sitters. I'm only human, after all.